Every day there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people searching the Internet for classified military data and the identities of military personnel and their families. However, they are not hacking into sensitive databases or trying to breach Pentagon networks. They are simply looking in locations that are filled of this type of free information: social networking sites and personal web pages. There is one small group of these data seekers that you would want to be the very first to find this kind of online treasure. They are the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC).

Even as government 2.0 advocates hailed the U.S. Defense Department's newly framed social media policy upon its announcement, questions persisted over the value of such a policy in the wake of cybersecurity threats. But Sumit Agarwal, who was named deputy assistant secretary of defense (public affairs) for outreach and social media in January, says that with so many people using social media on their own, enforcing a closed posture on these tools may be as ill-advised as not doing so.

For those readers who have an on-going (i.e., contractor) relationship with a federal agency, this is the time of year to be considering what kind of proposal you'd like to give your client in case there is any end-of-fiscal year funding that needs to be spent by September 31st.

In February 2009 I cavalierly gave ambassador Negroponte a grade of "Incomplete" for failing to establish the prerogatives of the office and outgoing DNI Mike McConnell a "Gentleman's B" for his performance as the second Director of National Intelligence based on the following accomplishments: · FISA Modernization · Executive Order 12333 rewrite · National Cyber Security Initiative · Development of "A" Space · Security Clearance Reform · Intelligence Community (IC) joint duty program

After years of work in mitigating threats to the current version of networking protocols (Internet Protocol version 4- IPv4), network defenders can implement defense in depth by leveraging an array of capabilities like Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Intrusion Prevention Systems, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools and Unified Threat Management (UTM) tools. Capabilities have evolved in IPv4 security that enable all those functions to be hosted on singled Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) platforms. In the IPv4 world, the threats are still real and still require this defense in depth approach, but savvy network defenders have DPI and other tools at the ready to help mitigate these threats.

An advanced, indigenous base is building many of the country’s military enablers.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set out to complete its National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) within 18 months of publishing the final version. Instead, by January 2010—the halfway point—the OEC had completed 80 percent of the plan’s milestones and was well on its way to finishing the final 20 percent long before the deadline.

To support its global operations, the U.S. Marine Corps is relying on a tactical communications system linked by satellites to theater and national headquarters. Several mobile tactical systems and an innovative space-based networking capability are providing warfighters with reliable, high-bandwidth communications wherever they deploy.